USARA National Championships, Potosi, Missouri
Of the experiences that everyone should have in their life, competing in a national championship should be one of them. Whether it is in football chess, scrabble, or, in our case, adventure racing, being there is simply on of those great experiences. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I listening to Robyn Benincasa (one of the all star professionals of our sport) telling us about how hard it is to relate to these things until you have experienced the same. Just a day and a half earlier we hard started on a race/journey that would be one of the great experiences of any life.
I had only raced with Jim twice, having hooked up for the Croom Crusher and then after that the “Howl at the Moon” where we qualified (with Melissa Watson) for the Nationals. I had not planned on going, but a little arm twisting from Melissa – you wanna race ? – had me changing my plans and heading to Potosi, Missouri. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I; sitting in the pre-race briefing Thursday night at the Trout Lodge of the Ozarks.
It was great to see all the teams in the pre-race. Some teams looking for top 10 finishes were intent on gleaning every bit of info to have a solid race. My goals were a bit more pragmatic – a solid race and finishing. As with most adventure races we would not really know what the course would be until the next morning when we got our map and passport. Maps would be handed out at 5 AM, then a 6 AM second pre-race, and then a 7 AM start. After the map handout we did the usual course plotting (2 hours, 13 orienteering CP’s, and 25 course CP’s all to be plotted). We finished with a few minutes to spare and headed to the start just as the race began. Then the real fun began.
Jim had to run to the top of a hill (with all the other teams) and then meet Melissa and I at the south end of the lake near the start where we would be paddling. Jim took off and Melissa and I worked through the bottleneck of boats heading to the meeting point with Jim. The temperature was cold enough that water splashing on to us and the boats froze within a minute creating a nice sheen of ice on the gunnels. Fog rose from the lake in huge columns that swirled through the air as the armada of boats paddled south. As we picked up Jim and headed towards the first paddle checkpoints – the sun crested the eastern mountain top illuminating the hilltops to the west in a brilliant blaze of fire and golden fall hues. The first 2 checkpoints were along the paddle, and we stayed in the back of the pack – pacing ourselves and enjoying the scenery.
After exiting the boats after maybe 3 miles of paddling, we started the orienteering course. We were allowed to do the points in any order and we selected a route that took essentially clockwise around the lake. The only one that gave us any trouble was the second one (E - Boulder) as I was relying on the mapped roads on the map to actually be as shown. This was of course after a strong warning the day before in the pre-race not to rely too heavily on the locations of those roads. After switching to reading contours we picked it up quickly and finished a beautiful (and fun) orienteering course without too much trouble. The course had offered some incredible views and scenery. Another cool thing was Melissa found a pretty cool piece of trash, we thought it might be part of a still. The trash won us the ARFE best trash award!
When we arrived at the transition area, there were only a handful of bikes left, as most teams had long ago come and gone from the O course and headed out on bikes. We were in great spirits, we had not pushed very hard on the orienteering and were relatively fresh. The sun had warmed things up nicely so we pulled off a few layers of clothing and headed out on the first bike leg. The first couple of checkpoints (CP 1 and CP2) basically had us climbing the mountain and gaining some elevation. Of course with all of us being flatlanders – this was a bit brutal on our Florida legs, but we found ourselves passing teams on some of the climbs. The real fun of the bike leg started when we entered the single track of the Berryman trail. The bike terrain was pretty awesome, I’m a decent mountain biker and found myself easing cautiously through many of the switchbacks and rocky areas of the course. Our first surprise came at CP4, which had us plot another point a few miles up the trail for the “real” CP4. We decided to take a riskier route than the straight trail ride that would lead us to CP4, which had us navigate to above the CP by road and trail ride back down. We found the control, but it became obvious that the mapped trail was simply an “approximation” of the actual trail. Still the risk paid off as the teams we were with when we found the first CP4 location had not arrived at the new CP4. We had an easy time biking to CP5 and then following the mandatory route along the Berryman trail to CP6 (which was an awesome, mostly downhill, trail ride). We saw team BAMF (also a Florida team) heading out from CP5, which as it turned out was their second time, having taken an illegal route and having to redo a portion of the ride. We passed BAMF just before CP6 changing a flat about 100 meters from CP6. Also CP6 was a great location as an artesian spring with good water allowed us to refresh all our water.
The rest of the bike ride was uneventful buy nice trail to road ride. We chose another risky route, but again it paid off as we passed a few more teams arrived at CP8 and the start of the next trek section in good spirits.
The trek would have 2 checkpoints that would give us a bit of trouble. The first one (CP9) plotted about 100 meters from the drawn trail we were using, however it was actually located on the trail. We spent about 20 minutes looking around the woods for the flag, before returning to the trail and running right into it, just meters from where we had gone in (so much for relying on the mapped trail). CP10 was in an easy spot and a quick find. CP11 gave us (and a lot of other teams) trouble. In the dark and it had us finding a re-entrant at night looking south across a large stream bed. In the daylight the re-entrants would have been quite obvious, but at night it was much trickier. We found what we though was the correct re-entrant, but realized that we had to be “one over” so we crested the ridge and dropped into the second re-entrant and quickly found the checkpoint. We had trekked/walked the entire section and were feeling really good when we arrived at CP12 and the paddle.
By now it was about 9:30 PM and temperatures had dropped quite a bit. We had heard the water conditions were pretty low, so we had donned rain jackets, waterproof pants, seal skins socks and layered up for what would be a cold wet paddle. We first paddled across a small lake and down a steep spillway heading for the creek we would be paddling. The paddle looked to be a little over 10 miles, so we estimated worst case scenario at 4 hours.
We quickly realized that the worst case scenario was a lot worse than we had reckoned. Though the creek was pretty with swift moving water, it was also shallow. We would paddle hard where we had water, scanning the river with our lights for the deep water. We would hit the rock bars and shallows with scrunching noise that we quickly learned to dread. Bottoming out meant either poling our boat (with the paddles) off the shallow, or jumping out of the boat (I should mention into the cold water) and pulling it off the shallows. When we arrived at the CP13 location we pulled out on the wrong side of the river, so I walked across (remember shallow) and climbed the telephone pole where it was hung. This had given a few team (again, only in the dark) at night some trouble not looking up to see it in the air. I also had some trouble punching it – hanging from the pole with one hand I got the electronic dipper stuck and it beeped 4 times instead of one. This was supposedly bad – but I still did not worry too much.
We did have one amazing encounter on the river. At one point we saw what looked like a tree branch swimming across the stream. Our first thought (all Florida team) was gator, and then Jim said Tarpon!, but it was a beaver dragging a tree branch. He swam alongside of us for a while as we stared, dazed at him dragging the tree branch as he swam along completely ignoring us. After 5 hours of paddling and portaging, and scooching, and dragging – we made it to the takeout. At this point we were cold, wet, tired, and the fire at CP14 was quite a luxury. We spent some time drying out our gear before heading out on the last trek, a relatively long 16 mile trek.
We had heard that some teams had trouble with the checkpoints along this trek. By the time we got to the challenging ones (CP19 and CP20) we had daylight. That was a kind of sweet revenge – the fast teams had hit many of the early challenges in daylight which we hit later at night. These later controls they had darkness, while we hit them in the daylight. I did have a brain freeze on CP19, but simply handed the map to Melissa whose “fresh eyes” took us right to it with no problems at all. Our bikes were at CP21/CP8 – at this point we could “smell” the finish (last leg syndrome). It was probably obvious that we were having a good time as we strolled into the TA and started getting our bikes ready for the last big ride. We were joking and were feeling pretty good coming off the trek.
After a long transition we took the road up to CP22. As we arrived at the CP22 location a team came from the other direction and hinted for me to look at the passport. As it turned out the road was an illegal route to CP22, so we had a choice (1) go back and take the mandatory trail route, a 2 hour ride, or (2) take a 4 hour penalty. As it was getting late the team made a decision to take the penalty which would hopefully get us in around noon. I was glad as my Florida bike legs were now approaching a state of rubber and a 2 hour single track mountain bike ride was not something I was looking forward to at the time.
We headed on to CP23 and 24. The ride from CP23 to CP24 had the steepest climb of the race and I am quite proud to say I did not drop on it, though I did pay for it later. We saw other teams as we headed for CP25 (an out and back). At this point (around 29 hours of racing) we were pretty tired and were looking forward to the finish line. In the end we would finish after 29 and ½ hours of racing and take a four hour penalty and a solid 48th place finish. Jim had completed his first 24+ hour race, Melissa and I proved that we were a solid navigation team, and we had done what we came to do – had a great time.
(I’ll have maps up as soon as Melissa sends them to me)
Of the experiences that everyone should have in their life, competing in a national championship should be one of them. Whether it is in football chess, scrabble, or, in our case, adventure racing, being there is simply on of those great experiences. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I listening to Robyn Benincasa (one of the all star professionals of our sport) telling us about how hard it is to relate to these things until you have experienced the same. Just a day and a half earlier we hard started on a race/journey that would be one of the great experiences of any life.
I had only raced with Jim twice, having hooked up for the Croom Crusher and then after that the “Howl at the Moon” where we qualified (with Melissa Watson) for the Nationals. I had not planned on going, but a little arm twisting from Melissa – you wanna race ? – had me changing my plans and heading to Potosi, Missouri. So there we were; Melissa, Jim, and I; sitting in the pre-race briefing Thursday night at the Trout Lodge of the Ozarks.
It was great to see all the teams in the pre-race. Some teams looking for top 10 finishes were intent on gleaning every bit of info to have a solid race. My goals were a bit more pragmatic – a solid race and finishing. As with most adventure races we would not really know what the course would be until the next morning when we got our map and passport. Maps would be handed out at 5 AM, then a 6 AM second pre-race, and then a 7 AM start. After the map handout we did the usual course plotting (2 hours, 13 orienteering CP’s, and 25 course CP’s all to be plotted). We finished with a few minutes to spare and headed to the start just as the race began. Then the real fun began.
Jim had to run to the top of a hill (with all the other teams) and then meet Melissa and I at the south end of the lake near the start where we would be paddling. Jim took off and Melissa and I worked through the bottleneck of boats heading to the meeting point with Jim. The temperature was cold enough that water splashing on to us and the boats froze within a minute creating a nice sheen of ice on the gunnels. Fog rose from the lake in huge columns that swirled through the air as the armada of boats paddled south. As we picked up Jim and headed towards the first paddle checkpoints – the sun crested the eastern mountain top illuminating the hilltops to the west in a brilliant blaze of fire and golden fall hues. The first 2 checkpoints were along the paddle, and we stayed in the back of the pack – pacing ourselves and enjoying the scenery.
After exiting the boats after maybe 3 miles of paddling, we started the orienteering course. We were allowed to do the points in any order and we selected a route that took essentially clockwise around the lake. The only one that gave us any trouble was the second one (E - Boulder) as I was relying on the mapped roads on the map to actually be as shown. This was of course after a strong warning the day before in the pre-race not to rely too heavily on the locations of those roads. After switching to reading contours we picked it up quickly and finished a beautiful (and fun) orienteering course without too much trouble. The course had offered some incredible views and scenery. Another cool thing was Melissa found a pretty cool piece of trash, we thought it might be part of a still. The trash won us the ARFE best trash award!
When we arrived at the transition area, there were only a handful of bikes left, as most teams had long ago come and gone from the O course and headed out on bikes. We were in great spirits, we had not pushed very hard on the orienteering and were relatively fresh. The sun had warmed things up nicely so we pulled off a few layers of clothing and headed out on the first bike leg. The first couple of checkpoints (CP 1 and CP2) basically had us climbing the mountain and gaining some elevation. Of course with all of us being flatlanders – this was a bit brutal on our Florida legs, but we found ourselves passing teams on some of the climbs. The real fun of the bike leg started when we entered the single track of the Berryman trail. The bike terrain was pretty awesome, I’m a decent mountain biker and found myself easing cautiously through many of the switchbacks and rocky areas of the course. Our first surprise came at CP4, which had us plot another point a few miles up the trail for the “real” CP4. We decided to take a riskier route than the straight trail ride that would lead us to CP4, which had us navigate to above the CP by road and trail ride back down. We found the control, but it became obvious that the mapped trail was simply an “approximation” of the actual trail. Still the risk paid off as the teams we were with when we found the first CP4 location had not arrived at the new CP4. We had an easy time biking to CP5 and then following the mandatory route along the Berryman trail to CP6 (which was an awesome, mostly downhill, trail ride). We saw team BAMF (also a Florida team) heading out from CP5, which as it turned out was their second time, having taken an illegal route and having to redo a portion of the ride. We passed BAMF just before CP6 changing a flat about 100 meters from CP6. Also CP6 was a great location as an artesian spring with good water allowed us to refresh all our water.
The rest of the bike ride was uneventful buy nice trail to road ride. We chose another risky route, but again it paid off as we passed a few more teams arrived at CP8 and the start of the next trek section in good spirits.
The trek would have 2 checkpoints that would give us a bit of trouble. The first one (CP9) plotted about 100 meters from the drawn trail we were using, however it was actually located on the trail. We spent about 20 minutes looking around the woods for the flag, before returning to the trail and running right into it, just meters from where we had gone in (so much for relying on the mapped trail). CP10 was in an easy spot and a quick find. CP11 gave us (and a lot of other teams) trouble. In the dark and it had us finding a re-entrant at night looking south across a large stream bed. In the daylight the re-entrants would have been quite obvious, but at night it was much trickier. We found what we though was the correct re-entrant, but realized that we had to be “one over” so we crested the ridge and dropped into the second re-entrant and quickly found the checkpoint. We had trekked/walked the entire section and were feeling really good when we arrived at CP12 and the paddle.
By now it was about 9:30 PM and temperatures had dropped quite a bit. We had heard the water conditions were pretty low, so we had donned rain jackets, waterproof pants, seal skins socks and layered up for what would be a cold wet paddle. We first paddled across a small lake and down a steep spillway heading for the creek we would be paddling. The paddle looked to be a little over 10 miles, so we estimated worst case scenario at 4 hours.
We quickly realized that the worst case scenario was a lot worse than we had reckoned. Though the creek was pretty with swift moving water, it was also shallow. We would paddle hard where we had water, scanning the river with our lights for the deep water. We would hit the rock bars and shallows with scrunching noise that we quickly learned to dread. Bottoming out meant either poling our boat (with the paddles) off the shallow, or jumping out of the boat (I should mention into the cold water) and pulling it off the shallows. When we arrived at the CP13 location we pulled out on the wrong side of the river, so I walked across (remember shallow) and climbed the telephone pole where it was hung. This had given a few team (again, only in the dark) at night some trouble not looking up to see it in the air. I also had some trouble punching it – hanging from the pole with one hand I got the electronic dipper stuck and it beeped 4 times instead of one. This was supposedly bad – but I still did not worry too much.
We did have one amazing encounter on the river. At one point we saw what looked like a tree branch swimming across the stream. Our first thought (all Florida team) was gator, and then Jim said Tarpon!, but it was a beaver dragging a tree branch. He swam alongside of us for a while as we stared, dazed at him dragging the tree branch as he swam along completely ignoring us. After 5 hours of paddling and portaging, and scooching, and dragging – we made it to the takeout. At this point we were cold, wet, tired, and the fire at CP14 was quite a luxury. We spent some time drying out our gear before heading out on the last trek, a relatively long 16 mile trek.
We had heard that some teams had trouble with the checkpoints along this trek. By the time we got to the challenging ones (CP19 and CP20) we had daylight. That was a kind of sweet revenge – the fast teams had hit many of the early challenges in daylight which we hit later at night. These later controls they had darkness, while we hit them in the daylight. I did have a brain freeze on CP19, but simply handed the map to Melissa whose “fresh eyes” took us right to it with no problems at all. Our bikes were at CP21/CP8 – at this point we could “smell” the finish (last leg syndrome). It was probably obvious that we were having a good time as we strolled into the TA and started getting our bikes ready for the last big ride. We were joking and were feeling pretty good coming off the trek.
After a long transition we took the road up to CP22. As we arrived at the CP22 location a team came from the other direction and hinted for me to look at the passport. As it turned out the road was an illegal route to CP22, so we had a choice (1) go back and take the mandatory trail route, a 2 hour ride, or (2) take a 4 hour penalty. As it was getting late the team made a decision to take the penalty which would hopefully get us in around noon. I was glad as my Florida bike legs were now approaching a state of rubber and a 2 hour single track mountain bike ride was not something I was looking forward to at the time.
We headed on to CP23 and 24. The ride from CP23 to CP24 had the steepest climb of the race and I am quite proud to say I did not drop on it, though I did pay for it later. We saw other teams as we headed for CP25 (an out and back). At this point (around 29 hours of racing) we were pretty tired and were looking forward to the finish line. In the end we would finish after 29 and ½ hours of racing and take a four hour penalty and a solid 48th place finish. Jim had completed his first 24+ hour race, Melissa and I proved that we were a solid navigation team, and we had done what we came to do – had a great time.
(I’ll have maps up as soon as Melissa sends them to me)
1 comment:
I used to do a lot of hiking in my childhood because it was my parents' hobby... no great bicycling or racing around stuff though... yous two both look exceedingly fit!
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